How I work
A lot of my work comes back round. Customers who had the ground floor done one year book the first floor the next. A landlord who used me on one job kept me on across the estate for months. That is the whole approach in one line: do the job properly the first time and people ring again.
Properly means preparation before paint. Old paper stripped, walls filled and sanded, chalky surfaces sealed, bare timber primed, and walls lined where they need it. In Cornwall that matters more than most places. Granite, lime plaster and decades of old coatings do not behave like new plasterboard, and a finish that skips the groundwork starts to fail within a couple of winters.
It also means being easy to have in the house. Dust sheets down and furniture moved and covered before anything starts, tools cleared at the end of each day, and a straight conversation up front about which rooms will be out of action and for how long. I work alongside other trades on refurbishments without getting in their way, and I have put right another decorator's work before now.
Exteriors get the same treatment. A cottage or a bungalow is washed down and prepared before it sees a coat of paint, because on this coast the preparation is what decides whether the paint is still there in five years. I will help with choosing materials and colour, and I will say so if I think a choice will not last.